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Freeskiing is a term that was traditionally used to describe skiing when done for recreation, as opposed to training or racing.
History
The term Freeskiing dates back to 1988 when Canadian action sports cinematographer Greg Stump, affectionatly known as Stumpy, released his fourth film The Blizzard of Aahhh's. But people were "freeskiing" decades prior to the term. On this date, though, a revolution was born. Skiers around the planet stopped and stared as Scot Schmidt, Glen Plake and Mike Hattrup rewrote the book on big mountain skiing. Suddenly, there seemed to be an alternative to ski racing and freestyle and looked like it was a hell of a lot more fun.
At the time, the type of skiing displayed in this film was known by the moniker "extreme", as it was a radical change from the confines of groomed slopes, bogner outfits and European instructors. The ski magazines at this time, with the exception of Powder, were just glorified travels rags and the only other film maker, Warren Miller, was more revered for his historical perspectives of the sport than he was for progression. With Stumpy's fourth release, the stage was now set for skiing as a sport to make a paradigm shift.
Places like Squaw Valley, Jackson Hole, Snowbird, Crested Butte, Whistler and Chamonix now began to haunt the dreams of young skiers. Although it was already fashionable to spend a few seasons bumming it in a ski town, now kids started to think that maybe they could squeak out an existence posing in front of the camera as professional skiers.
By 1990 the sages of the new revolution were already firmly rooted in their adopted mountain zones. Eric Pehota and the late Trevor Peterson were exploring Canada. Bill Ericson, Kristen Ulmer and Gordy Peifer were crushing it in Utah's Cottonwood canyons. Shane McConkey, Kent Kreitler and Chris Davenport were at school in Boulder. Kim Reichhelm and Dave Swanwick were rockin' the Butte. Jackson Hole saw the arrival of The Jones Brothers, Micah Black and "Sick" Rick Armstrong Of course, Squaw Valley was loaded with talent.
This same year also saw the introduction of the Extreme skiing competion. Set in Thompson Pass, just outside of Valdez, Alaska, skiers from all over the Globe showed up to drop big lines down exposed peaks in a contest that organizer John McCune dubbed the World Extreme Skiing Championship or WESC. In the end, the victory belonged to Jackson Hole's Doug Coombs. The following year the innagural US Extreme Skiing Championships took place at Crested Butte.
Inspired by this new scene, Steve Winter and Murray Wise decided to document it on film. Their first full feature Soul Sessions and Epic Impressions was dropped on the world in 1993 and gave the entire community its first look at Vail local and future star Seth Morrison. Noted for high speed decents and distain for day-glo one piece ski suits, Winter struck a chord with skiers everywhere who collectivly wanted to move past the "Extreme" image.
The kids who had studied Blizzard five years before were now arriving and making their presence felt industry wide.
The duo followed up SS&EI with The Hedonist in 1994, and the Valdez gold rush was on. Word spread that you could drop huge lines in perfect snow unguided for $25 a run. With chopper pilots like Chet and Brewer a never before dreamed of world of white knuckle LZ's and gripping decents opened to anyone with the sack to drop in.
The Turning Point
The following year Volkl skis introduced the Snowranger, the first mid-fat ski available. While there had been "wide" powder skis in the past, they were soft tipped noodles designed for intermediates sking low angle pow in the Monashees and Caribous. Now, finally, a ski arrived that was stiff and had the hard-charger in mind. Problem was, very few skiers got on them that year, but the ones that did knew this was something big.
1995 also saw the release of Scott Gaffeny's Walls of Freedom. Although it was his third film, it was the first to capture the true progression of the Squallywood lifestyle. With his brother Robb straight running Schmidtiots and McConkey hucking monster backflips into the palisades, "Walls" proved to the rest of the tribe that Tahoe wasn't just hype.
That same year saw the formation of TGR. The year previous, the Warren Miller crew showed up to shoot them ripping Jackson. Prior to their arrival "The Boys" scoped some sick lines with big Teton backdrops only to be told to ride some lame inbounds beater terrain. In true outlaw Teton spirit, they laughed at the crew and skied off the set. Pissed off at the industry and at the film scene, the Jones Brothers, Dirk Collins and Corey Gavitt took matters into their own hands, doing the only sane thing a bunch of JD swilling cowboys would do; they went to AK, fished on a commercial boat and came home and bought 16mm cameras.
The only thing holding back the floodgates at this point was the ski industry itself. Run by uptight European executives, the industry refused to change with the times and produce the equipment that these new school skiers demanded. The 1995 SIA tradeshow in Las Vegas saw many an argument between industry executives and athletes. The medium was changing and the riders new it. The days of hop turns and powder eights was over, now if we could only convince Hans and Francois of this...
This all changed with the popularity of Snowboarding. When the ski industry slowly started to realize that they were losing a huge percentage of marketshare to this fledling counterpart, they began to open their ears to the suggestions of the above referenced ski pioneers.
1996 saw TGR drop The Continuum on the World. Showcasing Teton talent, the film was best known for a classic tee-off session on the backside of Grand Targhee and for Doug Coombs killing it in Valdez. Surprisingly, the boys purchased the latter footage from snowboarding's Standard Films. It seems the Hatchett's had been using Coombs as their guide the previous year, and when he started consistently showing up all of their talent, they just continued to let the camera roll.
But unlike Steve and Murray, TGR was marketing more than films, they had created a lifestyle. They didn't want to just sell movies, they wanted to sell skiing, real skiing, dirtbag sleep in your truck and hike when you're hungover skiing. To accomplish this they created an anti-corporate functional clothing line and surrounded themselves with low key core talent. The formula worked and ski bums world wide bought in to the vision.
96 was also the year that Kent Kreitler teamed up with Mike "Sr." Richardson and a crew of Tahoe clowns to form the first alternative ski rag originally titled Rage. Several months later, due to threatened lawsuits from Larry Flynt it was renamed Boards In Motion. Although only lasting for four issues, Boards helped in no small way to legitimize big mountain freeriding to the industry as a whole. It provided athlete interviews, showcased new talent and called out the ski industry for being the tight assed, close minded pussies that they were.
Racing Boards to print was Times Mirror's new youth targeted creation Freeze. Although simular to Boards, it hit news stands with two major differences; 1) It had real money behind it, 2) It hired its whole editorial staff, as opposed to hoping its bros would show up for work on pow days. The result was that the differences assured Freeze would stay in business, but its message was tainted from day one.
TERM DEFINED
Freeskiing is a term that was traditionally used to describe when one is just skiing for fun, as opposed to training or racing. In the mid 1990's, the term was adopted by big mountain skiers or for lack of a better term, extreme skiing professionals. They collectivly wanted to refer to their sport in a new light, since the media's overuse of the term "extreme" in the 1990's diffused its relevancy to the sport.
The free in freeskiing refers to skiing outside artificially-set limits such as race gates, FIS rules, and ski area boundaries. Today the term encompasses two general camps of skiing: big mountain skiing (high-angle descents including cliffs and other extreme exposure), and "new school" or terrain park skiing (tricks and railslides performed with a snowboarder-style flair).
See International Free Skiers Association
Some of the heroes of freeskiing are considered legends by the ski industry, such as Shane McConkey and Seth Morrison. These two individuals have each appeared in more than 20 ski films and were part of the core group of skiers who are generally credited with progressing the sport from its extreme skiing roots to the faster, more aggressive nature of today's freeskiing sport.
Other heroes are considered newer talent, such as Tanner Hall, TJ Schiller and Eric Pollard. These individuals have focused more on progressing the tricks and style that terrain park skiers can attempt (whether actually attempted in a terrain park, in the backcountry, or in an urban setting). Many of their achievements (including those noted here) have been documented in films such as Kris Ostness's "Clay Pigeons," "Flying Circus" and "Teddy Bear Crisis" as well as in the magazines Freeskier, Dark Summer, Freeze (now defunct) and Powder. The competitive aspect of the sport is also documented in the years of television coverage of the ESPN X-Games, the Gravity Games, and the US Freeskiing Open.
"Freeskiing"